


Shadows in the Looking-Glass

by TheSkyLarkin



Series: SkyLarkin's Whumptober 2020 Fics [7]
Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Abrupt Ending, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, Emotional Hurt No Comfort, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional Whump, Flashbacks, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Mentioned Eraqus (Kingdom Hearts), Mentioned Terra (Kingdom Hearts), Mentioned Ventus (Kingdom Hearts), Minor Injuries, Missing Scene, Video Game Mechanics, Whump, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:35:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27009715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSkyLarkin/pseuds/TheSkyLarkin
Summary: The longer Aqua is trapped within the Realm of Darkness, the more it warps and changes around her—and around the darkness that lurks within the corners of her own heart. Acts as a coda to BBS’s Final Episode and a prequel to BBS 0.2 A Fragmentary Passage.Challenge: Whumptober 2020Prompts: No. 14 -> Alt. 5: "Stoic Whumpee(s)"See End Notes for comprehensive warnings/tags
Relationships: Aqua & Eraqus & Terra (Kingdom Hearts), Aqua & Terra & Ventus (Kingdom Hearts)
Series: SkyLarkin's Whumptober 2020 Fics [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1946617
Kudos: 3
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Shadows in the Looking-Glass

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to [spiraling](https://spiraling.tumblr.com/)/[Stormwind13](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stormwind13/pseuds/Spiraling) for beta reading!

There were no item shops in the Realm of Darkness. Aqua’s violent encounters with all of the powerful dark creatures that relentlessly pursued the only source of light in this entire plane of existence for an indeterminate amount of time (as there is no time in the Realm of Darkness as well) had whittled down her stocks of healing items—which she’d taken for granted in the Realm of Light where they had been abundant and cheap. What a foolish oversight; a Keyblade Master ought to have known better.

Just the mere act of existing in this awful place had sapped Aqua of a considerable amount of strength and power: spells that she used to be able to cast without thinking were now next to impossible for her. Abilities she used to take for granted were erased from her mind completely, the muscles in her body unable to remember the actions at all. Master Eraqus’s keyblade felt heavy and ill-balanced for her grip as she swung it—how fitting for an heir to the Land of Departure who couldn’t even save her Master or her friends from their respective sad fates.

As she walked through this desolate waste, more and more of the vile creatures that call this place home slithered out of the darkness to take a swing at her, as if sensing this growing weakness. This latest attack started off with a vague inhuman chanting in the distance, and all of the air in Aqua’s throat being siphoned out in a burst of magic. She recognized the Silence spell as she gasped for breath, but could not hear herself as her body tried to regain the lost oxygen. As a fighter who relied heavily on magic, having her best weapon taken away from her was never a good thing. As someone who had long since gone through her whole stock of panaceas, this was so much worse.

Aqua looked around warily as she attempted to spot the spell’s caster in the blackness beyond, but a faint whoosh behind her caught her attention. She leaped back in time to dodge a strike from a massive sword nearly half as tall as her, held by a hulking brute of a creature with piercing yellow eyes. It reminded her of a creature that was half-man, half-bull from Terra’s favorite storybook when they were still small children, barely able to wield wooden keyblades and just beginning under Master Eraqus’s tutelage.

Unfortunately for her, this attack was merely a distraction; a bird-like being with the tips of its feathers shaped like jagged spearheads barreled in from nowhere and caught her off-guard. Sharp talons and pointed wing-tips ripped and tore at flesh until Aqua managed to bat the beast away, just barely raising her keyblade in time to block most of the magical bombardment from the still unseen caster. But not all of it—her left shoulder and upper arm _burned_ where streaks of frigid Ice magic had come into contact with bare skin. If only she still had her Keyblade Armor...

This was not good at all. Depriving her of her magic had been a very clever move on the part of her assailants: now her effective offensive _and_ defensive options had been halved with her powerful shield spell unavailable to her. And with her Cure spells disabled as well, her _only_ healing options had vanished. This was exactly the sort of thing Master Eraqus had warned her about back when she’d first made the decision to focus on magic as a Keyblade Apprentice.

“Walking the path of the mystic is a difficult one,” he’d said to her all those years ago. “You may gain immense power, but also equality immense weakness. Drop your guard at the wrong moment, and even the weakest of enemies will be able to cut you down. If you run out of magic at a critical moment and can’t cry for help, there will be very little options left for you but to give up. Are you willing to take that risk?”

“Keyblade Masters don’t cry! And they never give up!” was young Aqua’s defiant response. A shadow of emotion crossed Eraqus’s face at this firm declaration, but it was gone in an instant. (He’d taught them to have mastery over their emotions, and a good teacher practiced what he taught.) “I mean, yes Master, I am prepared to take these risks,” Aqua quickly corrected herself in a more solemn tone.

“And if Aqua ever gets in trouble, I’ll help her!” hollered Terra from the other end of the training grounds, just before proving that Keyblade _Apprentices_ did cry as he was too distracted to notice the metal training ring swinging back towards him until it collided with the back of his head with a spectacular thwack.

Now, with the two creatures of darkness bearing down upon her and the Silence spell suppressing even the faintest spark of magic, Aqua was truly alone in her late Master’s nightmare scenario. Worse still, the dark beings seemed to be working together flawlessly: the brute would dive in and tank Aqua’s hits whenever it seemed that she had the bird creature within her sights, and the flyer took advantage of the openings that the larger beast’s attacks created to get in as many stabs as it could. It was almost…

…like watching Terra and Ventus fight, Aqua realized seconds before getting caught by a wide swing of the brute’s sword and slammed into the ground. (If not for the metal plating on her sleeve, the blow would have sliced clean through her arm. As it was, Aqua could feel a massive bruise already forming underneath the thin, but durable armor.) Was this place somehow taking her thoughts of the people she missed most and using them against her? How could that be possible? However, this was a realm of pure darkness and evil manifest—if such an awful thing were to happen somewhere, it would happen here in this cursed location.

As she peeled herself off the ground, hissing in pain whenever she needed to move her left shoulder (which still stung from the earlier magical impact and had only gotten worse with the last impact with the ground) and right arm, a plan was beginning to form in Aqua’s head. If the Realm of Darkness wanted to use her memories of Terra and Ven against her, so be it then. She’d just have to use all of her other memories of sparing with them against these dark constructs. She had not spent all of those brisk, sunny days in their home in the mountains in mock combat with her best friends to lose to pale imitations of them created by the darkness.

Readjusting the grip on her keyblade (and reminding herself that it was _her_ keyblade now, Master Eraqus had entrusted it to _her_ as well as control over the Land of Departure if he were to fall in battle), Aqua changed tactics and charged right towards the brute. He squared his shoulders and curled up in anticipation of blocking her incoming attacks, but at the last moment, Aqua chose to leap up and launched herself off his back.

This sent her flying upwards towards the bird-creature, who had flown closer in order to take advantage of the brute’s attempted counterattack. She concentrated all of her attacks on its right wing and was pleased to see that her assault had at least crippled the appendage once she landed, as the flyer was noticeably favoring that wing and flying a lot closer to the ground now. After dodging the brute’s wild sword swings again, she was able to reach the bird-creature with her keyblade without using the other beast as a springboard. With a few well-aimed strikes, Aqua managed to cripple the creature’s other wing at the expense of a few more stabs and slashes. It hit the ground with a loud, pained cry—unable to fly but still able to fight.

When Aqua went one on two with the boys in a practice match and played to win, her strategy was always to go after Ventus first. (When Ventus was still new, she’d throw a couple of matches just to build up his confidence. But only a couple.) The younger boy was a lot lighter on his feet and harder to hit, so he posed a greater threat to her fighting style than Terra. Terra quickly realized this and made it a priority to protect Ven from Aqua’s attempts to take him out first. (Although his strategy was made more difficult when Ven would get all huffy and insist that he didn’t need protecting).

The darkness constructs seemed to follow a similar tactic. Aqua’s feet had barely touched the ground before she was thrown off balance and hit the dirt hard as the brute thrust his sword into the ground to cast Earthquake. By the time she recovered, the bird-creature had prepared a Tornado spell and Aqua was helplessly tossed into the air before she could even attempt to escape. After flailing through the air as the spell tossed her every which way without even a moment to recover, she slammed into the ground yet again. Her whole body ached now as if it were one giant bruise.

But there was one part of her that wasn’t feeling any residual pressure: her throat. The Silence spell had finally worn off. Aqua waited until the two creatures were close enough together as they stalked towards her, like wild animals circling in for the kill, before raising her keyblade and hoarsely screaming, “Thunder!” The bolts of lightning struck true, sending the brute reeling backward and dissolving the bird-creature into tiny particles of darkness.

After all of their training together, the _real_ Ventus would never have fallen for that basic ploy, Aqua thought as she used her keyblade to pull herself up from off the ground. Ven was still fast asleep, safe and sound in the labyrinth she’d created out of the ruins of the Land of Departure. She’d just have to tell him all about it if— no, _once_ she got back and woke him up.

‘ _I should probably heal,_ ’ was Aqua’s last thought before she caught the sound of strange chanting seconds too late as another Silence spell took hold of her. Aqua wanted to rage at her foolish mistake—why hadn’t she healed herself sooner?—as the process of gasping for breath sent jolts of pain through her injured shoulder and chest. But with the spell active, screaming curses at the unseen monster wouldn’t have given her any satisfaction. When Aqua tracked down whatever creature kept doing this to her, she was going to make them pay.

As if summoned by her sheer indignation, the caster finally appeared from out of the shadows, hovering behind the brutish monster as it picked itself up from off the ground. This new being of darkness reminded her of Master Eraqus’s old armor that he’d only taken out and shown to Terra, Ven, and her once. What parts of its body weren't covered in rounded plate armor-like scales were instead a mass of blade-like spines. Aqua ducked around the brute to strike the newcomer, but it effortlessly blocked and parried all of her attacks.

Just like with the previous dark construct, the brute and the caster seemed to move in perfect synchronization against Aqua: the larger creature would leap in and tank a hit in order for the swordsman to strike Aqua from her blindspot as he seamlessly slipped past the other monster. Aqua tried to retaliate with a shotlock, but the armored creature sent an Ice spell hurdling right at her, too fast to dodge away from. Her standard block still failed to absorb the whole spell; now it was her face and exposed fingers that burned when they came into contact with the frigid magic.

Quickly putting as much distance between herself and the creatures as she could, Aqua quickly rubbed her hands together so that the magic didn’t freeze the blood in her fingers solid. That would be the end of the fight right there and then. Well, she could try to run away…like a scared child. 

The dark beings hung back, seemingly content to observe her from a distance for now. But soon enough Aqua became aware of a low, nearly indistinguishable noise to human ears coming from the creatures. Were they trying to cast another spell? She gripped her keyblade and cautiously moved closer until she could see their frames slightly shaking, and hear the otherworldly hums as they…

…laughed. They were laughing at her. Aqua was immediately taken back to a memory of her early days of keyblade training. She’d foolishly tried to take on both Terra and Master Eraqus at the same time, confident that the new spells she had learned would result in a victory for her. Instead, she ended up on the floor, holding back tears of embarrassment as Terra couldn’t help but laugh at the easy victory.

“There’s no shame in giving up,” Master Eraqus had tried to console her. “Sometimes a battle is just not meant to be won. You need to pick and choose your fights well, Aqua, you’ll never be able to defeat every enemy all on your own.”

But Master Eraqus wasn’t here now. Aqua knew what these creatures wanted from her now. They wanted her to throw down Master Eraqus’s keyblade in defeat. They wanted her to cry. But she wasn’t going to give them that satisfaction.

Switching tactics again, she charged at the swordsman-like creature first. It tried to dodge away and let the brute swing it’s massive sword at her, but Aqua unsummoned the keyblade and grabbed the monster by some of its protruding spines. Her hands bled as the sharp appendages cut into them while she tightened her grip, but she kept the creature in place long enough to then use her own momentum to then toss it into the path of the brute’s blade. The massive creature tilted its head to the side, as if in confusion, as its compatriot was suddenly caught up in its attack. When it looked up again, the last thing it saw was the barrage of orbs of colored light before Aqua’s shotlock sent it off to join its brother in oblivion as it exploded into a shower of the same dark particles.

Terra… Terra had said that he’d killed Master Eraqus. That couldn’t be right, there had to be more to his story. Terra wouldn’t just... kill their Master, who had been like a father to them for so long, in cold blood. But Terra’s body had been possessed by Master Xehanort, and she wasn’t able to make sure that he’d been exorcised from her friend’s heart before consigning herself to the Realm of Darkness in order for him to have a chance to be free. Had she done it? Had she been successful? The only way she’d ever know is if she got out of this place...

The swordsman-creature looked at her with almost an air of _disappointment_ as it rattled its spines and its sword-like “fingers” glowed with luminescent energy, like a sick facsimile of a blade made of pure light. It was if the dark construct was chiding her for her inappropriate keyblade form. Aqua nearly growled back at him as she turned to face him. She didn’t care about proper form when fighting the creatures of darkness. She didn’t care about the pain in her body or the twinges of loneliness in her heart that the memories of those she cared so dearly about had stirred up. The only thing she cared about right now was destroying the last construct created from the perversion of her memories that stood in front of her.

Three, two, one. Aqua felt the Silence spell release its hold on her throat and this time, she didn’t hesitate. “Heal!” she cried, and immediately felt the light soothing touch of healing magic coursing through her veins and flowing over her injuries like a morning mist. The spiny creature must have shifted forms, or perhaps it wanted to duel her properly (like Master Eraqus had always teased her about once she passed her Mark of Mastery exam…) because it made no move to recast the spell again, drawing itself into a very familiar fighting stance instead.

Master Aqua shifted her own body into a similar stance to mirror the armored figure’s, wiping away a bit of moisture from her cheek—a melted stray particle of Ice magic surely—as she did so.

Keyblade Masters didn’t cry, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I know parts of this fic are about... a decade too late by now, but I didn't get to play BBS until 2018 and have some "Aqua at the end of BBS" thoughts that I haven't had a chance to write about until now. Constructive criticism is appreciated!
> 
> Triggers/Warnings: Injuries, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Whump


End file.
